Ponticulus
Ponticulus was a mage of the House Tremere, and one of the closest advisors of the founder of that house. He died in 980 during the ritual of consecration of Ceoris, but later returned as a wraith in order to write his posthumous testament. Biography During the autumn equinox of 980, seven mages were escorted by two dozens of servants to the mountains of central Transylvania in order to enact the ritual that would give birth to the mighty chantry of Ceoris. Those mages were Tremere, Goratrix, Etrius, Meerlinda, Arundinis, Anguisa, and Ponticulus himself. As the last rays of light leeched from the sky, Goratrix grabbed a sickle and sawed off his own manhood as a sacrifice to the ritual. The blood gushed like a fountain and splattered the other participants but none of them flinched, for they knew that any outburst, any failure to maintain the chant would be fatal to the magic. Goratrix steeled himself and tore what was left of his intimate parts and placed it upon the desired spot. At that moment, Ponticulus was unable to control himself and fell to his knees vomiting his guts out. With a nod from Tremere, Goratrix step forward and slit Ponticulus' throat with the same blade he used to maim himself. After bleeding to death, Ponticulus became a wraith and watched from above as Arundinis and Anguisa withdrew their ritual knives and took his head off. Etrius took the lead for the remainder of the ritual, taking the severed head by the hair, and placed Goratrix's phallus inside the murdered magi's mouth, planting them both in the earth – effectively binding the wraith to that spot by doing so. Ponticulus ghost watched teams of retainers comb the mountainside, exploring and mapping its many natural caverns until his spirit found a home in a tiny seed beneath the earth – and when the seed began to grow he had a form once again, though not a human body. As a year went by, Goratrix came with Arundinis and Anguisa to ascertain that a fresh sapling had grown at the site, but watched with horror as a great oak-like thing with writhing, oily leaves stood in its place. They drew closer and saw Ponticulus' mocking features etched in his bark, and his newly-grown mouth, drooling sap, warned them that they did the bidding of a thing none of them knew, for only he felt the Root of All and the Stars Above clawing through his dark roots. Goratrix furiously set the tree alight with a spell and, with the help of his companions, killed Ponticulus for the second time - but not before his branches punctured Anguisa's chest. The surviving pair of magi looked for another sapling and replanted it where Ponticulus' tree had been. After that incident, Ponticulus was a formless wraith once again – the ultimate witness to Ceoris history. He eluded capture by Etrius several years later and managed to tell his tale by possessing the body of a Tremere magi named Bitiurges, hoping that the still-living members of House Tremere could act to destroy the monsters that some of them had become. Gallery Ponticulus_Tree.jpg|Ponticulus' tree as depicted in House of Tremere Ponticulus_VTES_card.jpg|''Ponticulus'' VTES card. Art by Brian LeBlanc References * Category:Tremere Category:Vampire: The Dark Ages characters